WHY THE BOMBERS STILL GOT IT

(In Photo: Ron Guidry)
After Opening Day, Old Timer's day is probably the best day at Yankee Stadium during the baseball year. It gives the fans a chance to see some of their favorite Yankee players comeback and play a friendly game with the rest of the old timers. They also saw the Bombers beat the Clippers 2-0 in two and a half innings of entertaining baseball.
(In Photo: Joe Pepitone, Mike Torrez)
Ron Guidry, aka "Louisiana Lightning", started the game for the Bombers. He allowed the first two to reach. But, Rick "Goose" Gossage came to the rescue and made Lee Mazzilli to hit a shallow fly ball into center field, caught by Bernie Williams, and Joe Pepitone grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.
(Photo: David Wells, David Cone, Darryl Strawberry)
David "Boomer" Wells started the bottom half of the first on the mound for the Clippers as he faced "Mick the Quick", Mickey Rivers. After throwing one behind Mickey, he forced him to ground to third. You can read our interview with Mr. Rivers titled: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: MICKEY RIVERS.

Then, Boomer faced Bernie Williams--who received another nice ovation from the crowd--drilled a double in the left center field gap for the first hit for the Bombers.

Wells' good friend David Cone relieved him and gave up a big two run homer which reached about the seventh row in the first deck of the right field seats. The crowd went crazy, and rightfully so. It brought back some great memories, and I even got a couple of chills down my spine when he hit that blast.

Final Score: Bombers-2 Clippers-0 in the 65th annual Old Timers Day Game.
(Photo: Ron Antonelli/NY Daily News)
It was certainly an entertaining game to watch. It was great to see Bernie Williams, Joe Torre, and Lou Piniella--who grounded out in his at bat against Jeff Nelson--back, along with all of the other Old Timers who played in this game, and were apart of the on field ceremonies.



--Jesse Schindler, BYB Staff Writer




Please comment and let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.

WHY BRONX FIRST BASEMEN WERE CHARACTERS

FIRST BASE: HONORABLE MENTION

Here are a few guys who also played first base for the New York Yankees. Obviously they are not in my top 3 Yankees fist baseman of all-time, but they are all damn good ballplayers and true characters. They needed to be recognized. Enjoy.

Hal Chase: "Prince Hal" played for the New York Highlanders. (The Yankees were originally the Baltimore Orioles, then the team moved to New York, became the Highlanders, and were then renamed the Yankees.) He was considered the first star of the franchise. Babe Ruth and Walter Johnson called him the best fielding first baseman they ever saw.
Hal Chase was a very good hitter,although you may not know this if you just look at his stats. Hal was known to wager on games, especially ones in which he was playing. He was never
officially placed on Major League Baseball's Banned List, but was blackballed in 1921. As with most players that "throw" or bet on games, as he grew older, Prince Hal regretted betting on games.

Wally Pipp: There's some debate as to whether Pipp actually had a headache or whether Yankee manager, Miller Huggins, just wanted to shake up the batting order and chose to put Lou Gehrig in that day. Either way, it's a great story and Lou Gehrig became the Iron Horse because of it. Pipp is quoted as saying, "I took the two most expensive aspirins in history." If you're not familiar with what happened, to put it simply, Pipp was replaced at first base June 2, 1925 with Lou Gehrig. The day before Gehrig came in for Pee-Wee Wanniger in a pinch hit situation. These 2 important games started Gehrig's 2,130 run.(photo: Corbis Images)

Joe Pepitone: One year just before Spring Training began, Pepitone bought a car, a boat, and a dog with his signing bonus. He drove all three to Florida. Joe travelled with a bag of hair products, for his toupees. He had two. He called the one he wore under his baseball hat his, "game piece." There are many more stories after he left the Yankees, but unfortunately some of them involve drugs and alcohol.

(photo: NY Daily News)

Steve Balboni: Initially, the Yanks rated Mr. Balboni as a higher prospect than Don Mattingly. But what I love the most about Balboni is that he looked like a softball player you'd see at your town's league, but when he got a hold of one, you knew it was gone for sure. Today, players are in much better shape and it's better for the overall quality of baseball. I don't think we'll see position players looking like softball players again, but it was kinda fun.

So, these are my first basemen honorable mentions, true characters of the Yankees lost in the shuffle of life, but never forgotten on Bleeding Yankee Blue. My features on the greatest Yankees second baseman are coming, look for it here.

What do you think so far? Let me know.



--Moonlight Graham BYB Staff Writer



Please comment and let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.